• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Crack Squirrels

TheQuixote

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Sep 25, 2003
Messages
3,268
Squirrels go nuts on crack

SQUIRRELS are getting hooked on crack cocaine — hidden by addicts in gardens. They are digging up the stashes and eating the mega-addictive drug, which comes in small chunks.

Several have been spotted behaving bizarrely in Brixton, South London, since a police blitz against pushers and users.

One resident said: “My neighbour said dealers had used my garden to hide crack.

“Just an hour earlier I’d seen a squirrel digging in the flower-beds.

“It was ill-looking and its eyes looked bloodshot, but it kept on desperately digging. It seems a strange thing to say, but it seemed to know what it was looking for.”
Other residents have seen squirrels become unusually aggressive.

The RSPCA said: “These animals are big foragers. They are attracted by smell and will dig up what they fancy.

“If a squirrel did open a bag of crack and start consuming it there is no doubt it would die pretty quickly.”

Crack squirrels are a recognised problem in America. They are common in parks used by addicts in New York and Washington DC.

They have been known to attack park visitors in their search for a fix.


The Currant Bun
 
The Crack addict squirrels made it to the Grauniad as well.

South London squirrels after different kind of stash
Patrick Barkham
Saturday October 8, 2005
The Guardian


If they are not launching themselves at you in drug-fuelled desperation, their bloodshot eyes are searching for their next fix, pink paws scrabbling in the ground. Sometimes they seize upon a rock of crack hidden in front gardens, and scarper to feed their addiction.
Squirrels in south London could have become addicted to crack cocaine, say residents of Brixton, who suggest the rodents have dug up drugs buried by dealers or nibbled residues of crack on pipes and vials discarded by addicts.

According to internet legend, crack squirrels have terrorised residents in New York and Washington. But is the Brixton crack squirrel real or an urban myth? The Guardian began its search for the freebasing fiend near the local cinema. "They used to hang out in the little park in front of the Ritzy, twitching ... dancing to music only they could hear and generally creating a malevolent ambience," Londoner Rik Abel wrote in his blog. Ritzy regulars were less sure. "I've never seen one," said a staff member. "But there might be crack foxes around too."

On Brixton Hill, Bim is not surprised by the spectre of the Brixton crack squirrel. "I've only been released from prison today but I've heard about the squirrels. They are scoffing all the crack, more stoned than me. Have you ever seen cats with hash? Cats always go for hash."

There is no sign of a squirrel half-crazed on Class As along Coldharbour Lane or Rush Common - but, finally, a possible sighting. "I've just seen one jump down from an old sunflower by the Seventh Day Adventist church," said Reg Throssell. "I locked eyes with it and it stared back at me really confidently. It was scavenging and it looked scrawny."

But Brixton crack squirrels need not worry about the police yet. "I've no knowledge of that at all," said a Scotland Yard spokesman, firmly

Have you ever seen cats with hash? Cats always go for hash."

And I thought moggies only did Catnip...
 
Have you ever got close enough to a squirell to see if it's eyes where bloodshot or not!
 
I've seen a rather thin and twitchy squirrel frantically eating cigarettte ends, in Bournemouth, some years ago. He didn't look too healthy, but I don't think his eyes were bloodshot.
 
I'm not sure how you'd tell on a squirrel, as their eyes are black.
 
The behavior described is normal for gray squirrels, except for the bloodshot eyes. If you look at most animals, all you can see is iris and pupil (any bio people know why?). I remember in Mary O'Hara's horse trilogy (My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming), the way you could tell if a horse was "loco" was that you could see the whites of its eyes regularly, though all horses got white rims if they were sufficiently stressed.
 
this is from an article in today's (sunday 18th may 2008) edition of the news of the world. it is an excert from a new biography of cop harry keeble called crack house.

as news of harry'd triumps grew, his team benefited from the force's 2rat on a rat" scheme urging people to shop dealers.
it led to more arrests - and some barmy calls. "one man said he had been attacked by a pack of marauding squirrels. they'd eaten somebody's rocks of crack thinking they were nuts," says harry

it doesn't have a date for when this call would have been made and i can't remember exactly when the "rat on a rat" scheme was running, but i'm not sure i read anywhere about police actually stating to receiving a call about this phenomena.
 
IIRC, this urban myth was exploded long ago (in the FT, perhaps?).

A local (Brixton) radio station made a joke about what would happen if a squirrel discovered a crack dealer's "stash". A local newspaper reporter took up the story and ran it as a joke piece. A national newspaper reporter "discovered" this story and put it into "general circulation" from where other nationals picked up the story.

IIRC.
 
Back
Top